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Acura
Acura 2012 Acura TL
For years, Acura approached the evolution of its vehicles with the deliberate patience of a carpenter wielding a sanding block. Rough mechanical or aesthetic edges were banished not with axe swings, but with small motions that seemed barely perceptible compared to the ranging whims of the competition.
Then the 2009 TL came along.
While the automaker had already begun to dabble with its then-new corporate shield grille, the TL took the piece and ran with it in a direction no one else was heading. Ask Acura about the thinking behind the design, and the company will say that the look was a product of the times. When the vehicle was penned, the world was preoccupied with ever larger displays of affluence, and Acura wanted a sedan that was unmistakable in every way. Unfortunately, the fourth-generation TL landed right as the housing bubble popped and the rest of the economy began circling the drain.
In order to right the TL’s wrongs for 2012, Acura has put down the chainsaw in favor of the carving knife to build an altogether more attractive vehicle that brings additional fuel economy to the table as well. Are the small changes enough for the luxury sedan to put its dreaded beak behind it?
2012 Acura TL softens skin, sharpens claws in Chicago
Let’s be honest – the Acura TL isn’t exactly a pretty car. And while the vast majority of the automotive media and enthusiast forums immediately lashed out at the TL’s angular design, we were nothing short of pleased with its luxurious, high-tech interior and solid driving dynamics – especially the six-speed manual-equipped SH-AWD. For the 2012 model year, Acura has softened some of the car’s harsh lines, and while the automaker tells us that both the front and rear fascias are “all-new,” there’s no mistaking this sedan for anything but a TL.
Because this is merely a modest mid-cycle refresh, the TL’s powertrain hasn’t been completely overhauled. Both the 3.5- and 3.7-liter V6s are still on hand, though a new six-speed automatic transmission helps improve performance and fuel economy. A new set of 19-inch all-season tires are available on SH-AWD models in an effort to improve performance on snow and ice, fitted to an updated set of alloy wheels.
Inside, Acura has made substantial improvements to reduce wind and road noise, and the HDD navigation system has been upgraded to 60 gigabytes for improved music storage. What’s more, a new Advance Package nets customers things like a blind spot information system and cooled front seats. Look for the 2012 TL to hit dealerships later this year. Follow the jump for the official press release.
2012 Acura TL is the face of change… at least a little bit 
Acura has yanked the sheets off of the latest take on its bread-and-butter TL at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show. In the face of much criticism, the Japanese automaker’s stylists have set about taking some of the edge off of the sedan’s styling with a fresh front fascia that goes some way toward making the vehicle look more like a car and less like Picaso’s interpretation of one. The 2012 TL now wears shorter overhangs both front and rear, and the new look includes shedding the chrome trim from around the rear taillamps for a look that’s altogether more appetizing than the previous iteration.
A few changes have cropped up under the hood as well. Acura engineers managed to cut engine friction to increase fuel economy, and a new six-speed automatic transmission helps bump the final figures to 20 mpg city and 29 mpg highway. That’s an increase of three mpg highway over the five-speed automatic-equipped 2010 model. Fans of the third pedal need not fret, though. Acura says that buyers will still be able to snag their 2012 TL SH-AWD with the same six-speed manual setup that’s currently available.
2012 Acura TL to debut at Chicago Auto Show 
Acura has announced that it will debut the newly refreshed 2012 TL at the Chicago Auto Show next month. Details are slim as of this writing, but the automaker says that the 2012 model “further enhances its position in the segment with aggressive, yet refined styling and performance.”
In its current form, the TL has been praised for its high-quality and tech-friendly interior, not to mention the relatively impressive driving dynamics of the SH-AWD 6MT model. However, the biggest deal-breaker for the current TL has been its styling, which has garnered a whole slew of negative praise – especially the angular front fascia. We’ll have the full details on the 2012 TL closer to its official debut on February 9, so stay tuned.
Styling biggest reason people reject Acura
It’s no secret that the corporate schnoz adopted in recent years by Acura is, shall we say… controversial. But whether or not it’s helping or hurting sales is up for debate. On one hand, the brand’s 24-percent increase in sales in 2010 over the previous year has Honda’s luxury division outpacing the gains of its rivals. On the other hand, nearly everyone’s 2009 sales figures went down the economic toilet, and J.D. Power reports that exterior styling is the number one reason new car shoppers are rejecting the marque, followed closely by Acura’s interior styling.
Perhaps tellingly, Acura’s two most successful models in sales gains are the MDX and RDX utility vehicles, models competing in burgeoning segments (and the former of which features a somewhat muted faces compared to the rest of the company’s lineup). But hope may be on the way, and soon. According to Automotive News, Dave Conant, who owns an Acura store in Mission Viejo, California and has gotten an early look at the next-gen TL, Acura’s middle child is getting a major nose job.
And more new models are reportedly on the horizon as well, including hybrids and a likely return to the entry-level compact luxury class. What’s more, the automaker has promised dealers that future models will be better differentiated from one another, both styling-wise and in size. All that sounds good, just so long as no giant polished cow-catcher grilles get in the way.
2011 Acura TSX Sport Wagon
Brush your long, grungy mop from your eyes, turn down the Nirvana and take a look around. It’s the early ’90s and an army of sport utility vehicles are flooding the streets. The newest four-wheeled object of America’s affection has quickly become the default mode of transportation for everyone from inner city professionals to suburban soccer moms.
Fast forward a couple of decades and although sport utes are still around, they’ve largely been displaced by the crossover – the SUV’s easier-to-maneuver, more fuel efficient and more comfortable unibody progeny. But even after years of refinement, the CUV is still a basketcase of compromises. Which begs the question: Did we have it right back in the day? Is a wagon still the best compromise of size, functionality and driving dynamics? We snagged the keys to a 2011 Acura TSX Sports Wagon to find out.
Abarth
Abarth 500 Motore Centrale R230 burns through its shoes
What’s the point in moving an engine to the back to drive the rear wheels if you can’t light up those rear tires? That’s what the folks behind the Motore Centrale R230 have evidently figured, taking the mid-engined FiatAbarth 500 for a spin or two around the back lot at a racing circuit.
The R230, for a quick refresher, is the first product of Lucarelli Monza, with an interior done up by Aznom. The comprehensive re-engineering of the car involved moving the engine – with some serious modifications – to the back of the car for entirely different dynamics from the Cinquecento on which it’s based.
We brought you initial details of the car’s development last month, followed by its unveiling at Top Marques Monaco. Now the same snap-happy videographers at Marchettino have given us footage of the R230 pulling donuts in a parking lot. And while the driver may not exactly be Tanner Foust, it’s worth a watch, so check it out after the jump.
Romeo Ferraris and Fenice Milano pay tribute to Monza with limited edition Abarth 500
Like weddings in the Deep South, everything with cars is relative. For instance, we’d strain to call most cars with racing stripes running every which way “subtle.” But when the treatment comes from Fenice Milano, anything short of gold chrome is understated. See? Relative.
The Milanese design house is the same that has gilded everything from the Fiat 500C to the Rolls-Royce Ghost. But for this special edition, they’ve teamed up with Romeo Ferraris, the Italian tuning house that’s given us custom Corvettes, Land Rovers and of course… Fiat 500s. Okay, so between them there’s no lack of love for the retro hatchback, and this is the embodiment of their shared passion: the Abarth 500 Monza.
A limited-edition tribute to the legendary grand prix circuit, the Monza edition is limited to just ten examples. So what makes it so special? Well it’s got red and blue racing stripes – the track’s official colors – that do a wicked Herby the Love Bug impression, sans Lindsay Lohan (for better or worse). But while the stripes continue into the white leather interior, this isn’t just a trim package.
Romeo Ferraris stepped in to nearly double the engine’s output, upping the horsepower figure from 135 to 260. They also threw in 280mm Brembo disc brakes, 205/40-R17 Yokohama tires and a full aero kit. And in case that wasn’t enough with the special treatment, each example gets a brass plaque with the owner’s name, an edition number on the shifter and a whole mess of Monza logos all over the place. Which may seem a little over the top, but again: think relative. And while you’re mulling that over, check out the high-resolution images in the gallery below.
Read more…
Romeo Ferraris and Fenice Milano pay tribute to Monza with limited edition Abarth 500
Like weddings in the Deep South, everything with cars is relative. For instance, we’d strain to call most cars with racing stripes running every which way “subtle.” But when the treatment comes from Fenice Milano, anything short of gold chrome is understated. See? Relative.
The Milanese design house is the same that has gilded everything from the Fiat 500C to the Rolls-Royce Ghost. But for this special edition, they’ve teamed up with Romeo Ferraris, the Italian tuning house that’s given us custom Corvettes, Land Rovers and of course… Fiat 500s. Okay, so between them there’s no lack of love for the retro hatchback, and this is the embodiment of their shared passion: the Abarth 500 Monza.
A limited-edition tribute to the legendary grand prix circuit, the Monza edition is limited to just ten examples. So what makes it so special? Well it’s got red and blue racing stripes – the track’s official colors – that do a wicked Herby the Love Bug impression, sans Lindsay Lohan (for better or worse). But while the stripes continue into the white leather interior, this isn’t just a trim package.
Romeo Ferraris stepped in to nearly double the engine’s output, upping the horsepower figure from 135 to 260. They also threw in 280mm Brembo disc brakes, 205/40-R17 Yokohama tires and a full aero kit. And in case that wasn’t enough with the special treatment, each example gets a brass plaque with the owner’s name, an edition number on the shifter and a whole mess of Monza logos all over the place. Which may seem a little over the top, but again: think relative. And while you’re mulling that over, check out the high-resolution images in the gallery below.
Abarth
Abarth 500 Motore Centrale R230 burns through its shoes
What’s the point in moving an engine to the back to drive the rear wheels if you can’t light up those rear tires? That’s what the folks behind the Motore Centrale R230 have evidently figured, taking the mid-engined FiatAbarth 500 for a spin or two around the back lot at a racing circuit.
The R230, for a quick refresher, is the first product of Lucarelli Monza, with an interior done up by Aznom. The comprehensive re-engineering of the car involved moving the engine – with some serious modifications – to the back of the car for entirely different dynamics from the Cinquecento on which it’s based.
We brought you initial details of the car’s development last month, followed by its unveiling at Top Marques Monaco. Now the same snap-happy videographers at Marchettino have given us footage of the R230 pulling donuts in a parking lot. And while the driver may not exactly be Tanner Foust, it’s worth a watch, so check it out after the jump.
Read more…
Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Buzz it up share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tweet about it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Bookmark in Browser Tell a friendBe the first to comment - What do you think? Posted by dailycar - May 27, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Categories: Abarth Tags:
Romeo Ferraris and Fenice Milano pay tribute to Monza with limited edition Abarth 500
Like weddings in the Deep South, everything with cars is relative. For instance, we’d strain to call most cars with racing stripes running every which way “subtle.” But when the treatment comes from Fenice Milano, anything short of gold chrome is understated. See? Relative.
The Milanese design house is the same that has gilded everything from the Fiat 500C to the Rolls-Royce Ghost. But for this special edition, they’ve teamed up with Romeo Ferraris, the Italian tuning house that’s given us custom Corvettes, Land Rovers and of course… Fiat 500s. Okay, so between them there’s no lack of love for the retro hatchback, and this is the embodiment of their shared passion: the Abarth 500 Monza.
A limited-edition tribute to the legendary grand prix circuit, the Monza edition is limited to just ten examples. So what makes it so special? Well it’s got red and blue racing stripes – the track’s official colors – that do a wicked Herby the Love Bug impression, sans Lindsay Lohan (for better or worse). But while the stripes continue into the white leather interior, this isn’t just a trim package.
Romeo Ferraris stepped in to nearly double the engine’s output, upping the horsepower figure from 135 to 260. They also threw in 280mm Brembo disc brakes, 205/40-R17 Yokohama tires and a full aero kit. And in case that wasn’t enough with the special treatment, each example gets a brass plaque with the owner’s name, an edition number on the shifter and a whole mess of Monza logos all over the place. Which may seem a little over the top, but again: think relative. And while you’re mulling that over, check out the high-resolution images in the gallery below.
Read more…
Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Buzz it up share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tweet about it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Bookmark in Browser Tell a friendBe the first to comment - What do you think? Posted by dailycar - December 17, 2010 at 8:49 am
Categories: Abarth Tags:
Fiat 500 Abarth coming to U.S., all-electric 500 BEV to launch first
The other day we told you to bone up on your Italian because the Fiat 500 configurator came online. Now you should seriously start saving your Lira because the high-performance 500 Abarth model has been confirmed for the U.S. market. No date has been confirmed, but we’ve been told that the launch of all 500 models will be staggered and the Abarth is last in the queue.
Those other variations include the standard 500 that you can start ordering now, the 500C drop-top and a 500 that runs on all-electric battery power. Still, the one we’re breaking out the driving gloves for is the Fiat 500 Abarth… and rumor has it that we might see the tiny terror running Stateside within the next three years because the 500 BEV hits the market in 2012.
Read more…
Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Buzz it up share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Share on technorati Tweet about it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Bookmark in Browser Tell a friendBe the first to comment - What do you think? Posted by dailycar - November 19, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Abarth to go it alone on mid-engine roadster?
Reports of Abarth getting its own sports car have been surfacing pretty much since Fiat relaunched the brand. They seem to have intensified recently, with reports alternately suggesting that the Scorpion marque could partner with either Lotus or KTM on the development of a mid-engine roadster. The latest scuttlebutt, however, indicates that Abarth could go it alone on the new model.
The issue with KTM is reportedly that its carbon-fiber X-Bow, upon which the Abarth roadster could be based, is too expensive for the low price point Fiat seeks. The hesitance to work with Lotus, however, may be more personal. Lotus CEO Danny Bahar defected there from Ferrari, and took a number of personnel from both Maranello and Maserati with him.
As a result, Abarth could build a Lotus Elise rival from the ground up, powered by the latest-generation MultiAir engine mated to the company’s new dual-clutch gearbox. Such a move would, however, seem at odds with Sergio Marchionne’s push to integrate products and platforms across Fiat and Chrysler brands. But if a mid-engine Dodge roadster came out of it as well, you wouldn’t find us complaining.
Paris Preview: Abarth launches EsseEsse versions of 500C and Punto Evo
Unveils New Rules About Sunscreen Claims
After 33 years of consideration, the Food and Drug Administration took steps on Tuesday to sort out the confusing world of sunscreens, with new rules that specify which lotions provide the best protection against the sun and ending claims that they are truly waterproof.
The F.D.A. said sunscreens must protect equally against two kinds of the sun’s radiation, UVB and UVA, to earn the coveted designation of offering “broad spectrum” protection. UVB rays cause burning; UVA rays cause wrinkling; and both cause cancer.
The rules, which go into effect in a year, will also ban sunscreen manufacturers from claiming their products are waterproof or sweatproof because such claims are false. Instead, they will be allowed to claim in minutes the amount of time in which the product is water resistant, depending upon test results.
And only sunscreens that have a sun protection factor, or SPF, of 15 or higher will be allowed to maintain that they help prevent sunburn and reduce the risks of skin cancer and early skin aging.
The rules have been under consideration since 1978, when “Boogie Oogie Oogie” was a hit on the radio and most beach lotions were intended to encourage tanning, not protect against it. But federal regulators said they had yet to decide whether to end an SPF arms race in which manufacturers are introducing sunscreens with SPF numbers of 70, 80 and 100 even though such lotions offer little more protection than those with an SPF of 50.
Still, dermatologists said they were thrilled.
“Now, we’ll be able to tell patients which sunscreens to get,” said Dr. Henry W. Lim, chairman of dermatology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology.
The rules will transform the $680 million domestic market for sunscreens, which has been growing rapidly because of an aging population and growing worries about skin cancer. And the final regulations are a stark change from a proposal the agency released in 2007, which would have created a star-based system for UVA protection. Under that system, sunscreens would have provided an SPF number for UVB protection and one to four stars for UVA protection.
The agency received more than 3,000 comments on that proposal, with many asserting that allowing products to offer differing levels of protection against UVB and UVA rays would be confusing. So the agency ditched the stars and instead will tell manufacturers that if they wish to label their products as offering “broad spectrum” protection they must make their defense against UVB and UVA radiation proportional.
“We think this is going to be much easier for the consumer to understand,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F.D.A.’s drug center, said in an interview. “All they’re going to need to do is pick an SPF number and then make sure that it’s broad spectrum.”
Any product that fails to offer proportional protection or has an SPF of 2 to 14 must include a warning that the product has not been shown to help prevent skin cancer or early skin aging. The new rules will standardize the testing that manufacturers must conduct for UVA protection.
The agency had proposed allowing manufacturers to use SPF numbers no higher than 50, but that remains only a proposal for which the agency will seek further comment. In particular, the government is asking whether there are special groups of people who would somehow benefit from having a product with an SPF of more than 50.
“Right now, we don’t have any data to show that anything above 50 adds any value for anybody,” Dr. Woodcock said.
Dr. Warwick L. Morison, a professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University and chairman of the photobiology committee for the Skin Cancer Foundation, said he was disappointed that the F.D.A. failed to ban SPF numbers higher than 50 because such products expose people to more irritating sunscreen ingredients without meaningful added protection.
“It’s pointless,” Dr. Morison said.
More than two million people in the United States are treated each year for the two most common types of skin cancer, basal cell and squamous cell, and more than 68,000 receive a diagnosis of melanoma, the most deadly form of the disease. Sunscreens have not been shown to prevent the first case of basal cell carcinoma, but they delay reoccurrences of basal cell and have been shown to prevent squamous cell and melanoma.
The F.D.A. announced that it was re-examining the safety of the roughly 17 sunscreen agents approved for use in the United States, although it has no information to suggest that they are not safe. Tuesday’s announcement will do nothing to speed the approval of more sunscreen agents. There are roughly 28 such agents approved in Europe and 40 in Japan, and some in the industry complain that the best ingredients have yet to reach American shores.
Some consumer and environmental groups have expressed concern that the ingredients in some sunscreens have been made so microscopic that they could be absorbed through the skin into the body, but Dr. Woodcock said that the F.D.A.’s own tests had found no cause for such concerns.
The agency is also asking for more information about sunscreen sprays to ensure that consumers get adequate quantities from spray bottles and to explore what happens when those products are inhaled. “You could imagine a child getting a sunscreen sprayed on and turning their face into the blast and breathing it in,” Dr. Woodcock said. “It’s a question of safety.”
The new regulations will do nothing to prevent the most common problem with sunscreens lotions, which is that consumers fail to use enough of them. The rules become effective in one year, although manufacturers with less than $25,000 in annual sales will have two years to comply.
Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, said the new rules were important. Mr. Reed proposed legislation mandating that the F.D.A. finally adopt the sunscreen proposals it floated in 2007.
“The F.D.A. has been sitting on these proposals for many, many years,” Mr. Reed said. “This is a major step, and I’m glad they’ve done it.”
Nokia Settles 2-Year Fight With Apple on Patents
Nokia said on Tuesday that it had settled a two-year-old patent fight with Apple over smartphone technology through a licensing agreement that will commit Apple to make a one-time payment to the company and to pay regular royalties in the future.
The agreement settles all outstanding patent litigation between Apple, the leader in the smartphone market, and Nokia. The companies also agreed to withdraw complaints against each other with the International Trade Commission over the use of intellectual property.
“We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” said Stephen Elop, the Nokia president and chief executive. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry-leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market.”
Nokia, which is based in Finland, did not disclose the financial terms of the settlement but said the agreement would have a “positive financial impact” on Nokia’s revised second-quarter results.
Nokia shares rose 15 cents, or 2.45 percent, to $6.26 in New York trading, after the announcement of the deal. Its shares had plunged on May 31, after Nokia revised its second-quarter sales and profit forecasts sharply lower, and abandoned its previously announced full-year targets for 2011 amid rising competition.
Apple described the agreement as limited in scope.
“Apple and Nokia have agreed to drop all of our current lawsuits and enter into a license covering some of each other’s patents, but not the majority of the innovation that makes the iPhone unique,” Apple said. “We are glad to put this behind us and get back to focusing on our respective businesses.”
Analysts said the financial impact on Apple was likely to be small.
“I don’t think it is material,” said Charles Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Company. Investors appeared to agree, sending Apple’s shares up about 1.8 percent, to $332.44.
Mr. Wolf said most of the Nokia patents appeared to cover highly technical internal components, which he described as the “plumbing” of mobile devices. The iPhone’s distinctive look and feel did not infringe on Nokia’s patents, he said. The mobile phone makers had been embroiled in more than 40 patent lawsuits in Germany, Britain and the United States since 2009 over basic technologies relating to a handset’s user interface, power management, antenna and camera.
Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst in Starnberg, Germany, said the announcement was a victory for Nokia, which in the first quarter ceded its long-held lead in global cellphone revenue to Apple. The iPhone is the world’s best-selling smartphone.
Mr. Mueller said while Apple benefited by settling its legal differences with Nokia, it was likely that the patent settlement with Apple involved “significant” payments by Apple to Nokia.
“I’m sure Nokia had to go down from its maximum demands because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a settlement,” Mr. Mueller said. “But the deal structure is very telling: A combination of a payment for past infringements as well as running royalties is a clear indication that there’s serious money in this for Nokia.”
Mr. Mueller said the agreement was the first fruit of a new Nokia strategy to more aggressively defend its patent portfolio, which includes more than 10,000 groups of handset patents developed over the past two decades. Nokia has said it invested more than 43 billion euros ($62 billion) to develop its patent archive.
“Having proven its ability to defeat Apple after the most bitterly contested patent dispute that this industry has seen to date is clear proof of” the effectiveness of Nokia’s more aggressive strategy, Mr. Mueller said. “Other companies whom Nokia will ask to pay royalties will have to think very hard whether to pay or pick a fight.”
Mr. Mueller said Nokia might now turn its sights on Google, the maker of the Android open-source phone operating system, which is the world’s fastest-growing mobile operating system. Mr. Mueller asserted that Android was technologically similar to Apple’s iPhone operating system and might invite a legal challenge from Nokia.
The agreement settles all outstanding patent litigation between Apple, the leader in the smartphone market, and Nokia. The companies also agreed to withdraw complaints against each other with the International Trade Commission over the use of intellectual property.
“We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” said Stephen Elop, the Nokia president and chief executive. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry-leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market.”
Nokia, which is based in Finland, did not disclose the financial terms of the settlement but said the agreement would have a “positive financial impact” on Nokia’s revised second-quarter results.
Nokia shares rose 15 cents, or 2.45 percent, to $6.26 in New York trading, after the announcement of the deal. Its shares had plunged on May 31, after Nokia revised its second-quarter sales and profit forecasts sharply lower, and abandoned its previously announced full-year targets for 2011 amid rising competition.
Apple described the agreement as limited in scope.
“Apple and Nokia have agreed to drop all of our current lawsuits and enter into a license covering some of each other’s patents, but not the majority of the innovation that makes the iPhone unique,” Apple said. “We are glad to put this behind us and get back to focusing on our respective businesses.”
Analysts said the financial impact on Apple was likely to be small.
“I don’t think it is material,” said Charles Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Company. Investors appeared to agree, sending Apple’s shares up about 1.8 percent, to $332.44.
Mr. Wolf said most of the Nokia patents appeared to cover highly technical internal components, which he described as the “plumbing” of mobile devices. The iPhone’s distinctive look and feel did not infringe on Nokia’s patents, he said. The mobile phone makers had been embroiled in more than 40 patent lawsuits in Germany, Britain and the United States since 2009 over basic technologies relating to a handset’s user interface, power management, antenna and camera.
Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst in Starnberg, Germany, said the announcement was a victory for Nokia, which in the first quarter ceded its long-held lead in global cellphone revenue to Apple. The iPhone is the world’s best-selling smartphone.
Mr. Mueller said while Apple benefited by settling its legal differences with Nokia, it was likely that the patent settlement with Apple involved “significant” payments by Apple to Nokia.
“I’m sure Nokia had to go down from its maximum demands because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a settlement,” Mr. Mueller said. “But the deal structure is very telling: A combination of a payment for past infringements as well as running royalties is a clear indication that there’s serious money in this for Nokia.”
Mr. Mueller said the agreement was the first fruit of a new Nokia strategy to more aggressively defend its patent portfolio, which includes more than 10,000 groups of handset patents developed over the past two decades. Nokia has said it invested more than 43 billion euros ($62 billion) to develop its patent archive.
“Having proven its ability to defeat Apple after the most bitterly contested patent dispute that this industry has seen to date is clear proof of” the effectiveness of Nokia’s more aggressive strategy, Mr. Mueller said. “Other companies whom Nokia will ask to pay royalties will have to think very hard whether to pay or pick a fight.”
Mr. Mueller said Nokia might now turn its sights on Google, the maker of the Android open-source phone operating system, which is the world’s fastest-growing mobile operating system. Mr. Mueller asserted that Android was technologically similar to Apple’s iPhone operating system and might invite a legal challenge from Nokia.
Pakistan Arrests C.I.A. Informants in Bin Laden Raid
Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central Intelligence Agency in the months leading up to the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, according to American officials.
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Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times
A casualty of the recent tension between the countries is an ambitious Pentagon program to train Pakistani paramilitary troops to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the northwestern tribal areas.
Pakistan’s detention of five C.I.A. informants, including a Pakistani Army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the weeks before the raid, is the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan. It comes at a time when the Obama administration is seeking Pakistan’s support in brokering an endgame in the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
At a closed briefing last week, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Michael J. Morell, the deputy C.I.A. director, to rate Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations, on a scale of 1 to 10.
“Three,” Mr. Morell replied, according to officials familiar with the exchange.
The fate of the C.I.A. informants arrested in Pakistan is unclear, but American officials said that the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, raised the issue when he travelled to Islamabad last week to meet with Pakistani military and intelligence officers.
Some in Washington see the arrests as illustrative of the disconnect between Pakistani and American priorities at a time when they are supposed to be allies in the fight against Al Qaeda — instead of hunting down the support network that allowed Bin Laden to live comfortably for years, the Pakistani authorities are arresting those who assisted in the raid that killed the world’s most wanted man.
The Bin Laden raid and more recent attacks by militants in Pakistan have been blows to the country’s military, a revered institution in the country. Some officials and outside experts said the military is mired in its worst crisis of confidence in decades.
American officials cautioned that Mr. Morell’s comments about Pakistani support was a snapshot of the current relationship, and did not represent the administration’s overall assessment.
“We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise,” said Marie E. Harf, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. “Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It’s a crucial partnership, and we will continue to work together in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs.”
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said in a brief telephone interview that the C.I.A. and the Pakistani spy agency “are working out mutually agreeable terms for their cooperation in fighting the menace of terrorism. It is not appropriate for us to get into the details at this stage.”
Over the past several weeks the Pakistani military has been distancing itself from American intelligence and counterterrorism operations against militant groups in Pakistan. This has angered many in Washington who believe that Bin Laden’s death has shaken Al Qaeda and that there is now an opportunity to further weaken the terrorist organization with more raids and armed drone strikes.
But in recent months, dating approximately to when a C.I.A. contractor killed two Pakistanis on a street in the eastern city of Lahore in January, American officials said that Pakistani spies from the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, known as the ISI, have been generally unwilling to carry out surveillance operations for the C.I.A. The Pakistanis have also resisted granting visas allowing American intelligence officers to operate in Pakistan, and have threatened to put greater restrictions on the drone flights.
It is the future of the drone program that is a particular worry for the C.I.A. American officials said that during his meetings in Pakistan last week, Mr. Panetta was particularly forceful about trying to get Pakistani officials to allow armed drones to fly over even wider areas in the northwest tribal regions. But the C.I.A. is already preparing for the worst: relocating some of the drones from Pakistan to a base in Afghanistan, where they can take off and fly east across the mountains and into the tribal areas, where terrorist groups find safe haven.
Another casualty of the recent tension is an ambitious Pentagon program to train Pakistani paramilitary troops to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban in those same tribal areas. That program has ended, both American and Pakistani officials acknowledge, and the last of about 120 American military advisers have left the country.
American officials are now scrambling to find temporary jobs for about 50 Special Forces support personnel who had been helping the trainers with logistics and communications. Their visas were difficult to obtain and officials fear if these troops are sent home, Pakistan will not allow them to return.
In a sign of the growing anger on Capitol Hill, Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who leads the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that he believed elements of the ISI and the military had helped protect Bin Laden.
Related
Room For Debate: Should the U.S. Cut Off Aid to Pakistan?
Times Topics: Pakistan The Death of Osama bin Laden
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Kuni Takahashi for The New York Times
A casualty of the recent tension between the countries is an ambitious Pentagon program to train Pakistani paramilitary troops to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the northwestern tribal areas.
Pakistan’s detention of five C.I.A. informants, including a Pakistani Army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the weeks before the raid, is the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan. It comes at a time when the Obama administration is seeking Pakistan’s support in brokering an endgame in the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
At a closed briefing last week, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Michael J. Morell, the deputy C.I.A. director, to rate Pakistan’s cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations, on a scale of 1 to 10.
“Three,” Mr. Morell replied, according to officials familiar with the exchange.
The fate of the C.I.A. informants arrested in Pakistan is unclear, but American officials said that the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, raised the issue when he travelled to Islamabad last week to meet with Pakistani military and intelligence officers.
Some in Washington see the arrests as illustrative of the disconnect between Pakistani and American priorities at a time when they are supposed to be allies in the fight against Al Qaeda — instead of hunting down the support network that allowed Bin Laden to live comfortably for years, the Pakistani authorities are arresting those who assisted in the raid that killed the world’s most wanted man.
The Bin Laden raid and more recent attacks by militants in Pakistan have been blows to the country’s military, a revered institution in the country. Some officials and outside experts said the military is mired in its worst crisis of confidence in decades.
American officials cautioned that Mr. Morell’s comments about Pakistani support was a snapshot of the current relationship, and did not represent the administration’s overall assessment.
“We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise,” said Marie E. Harf, a C.I.A. spokeswoman. “Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It’s a crucial partnership, and we will continue to work together in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs.”
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said in a brief telephone interview that the C.I.A. and the Pakistani spy agency “are working out mutually agreeable terms for their cooperation in fighting the menace of terrorism. It is not appropriate for us to get into the details at this stage.”
Over the past several weeks the Pakistani military has been distancing itself from American intelligence and counterterrorism operations against militant groups in Pakistan. This has angered many in Washington who believe that Bin Laden’s death has shaken Al Qaeda and that there is now an opportunity to further weaken the terrorist organization with more raids and armed drone strikes.
But in recent months, dating approximately to when a C.I.A. contractor killed two Pakistanis on a street in the eastern city of Lahore in January, American officials said that Pakistani spies from the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, known as the ISI, have been generally unwilling to carry out surveillance operations for the C.I.A. The Pakistanis have also resisted granting visas allowing American intelligence officers to operate in Pakistan, and have threatened to put greater restrictions on the drone flights.
It is the future of the drone program that is a particular worry for the C.I.A. American officials said that during his meetings in Pakistan last week, Mr. Panetta was particularly forceful about trying to get Pakistani officials to allow armed drones to fly over even wider areas in the northwest tribal regions. But the C.I.A. is already preparing for the worst: relocating some of the drones from Pakistan to a base in Afghanistan, where they can take off and fly east across the mountains and into the tribal areas, where terrorist groups find safe haven.
Another casualty of the recent tension is an ambitious Pentagon program to train Pakistani paramilitary troops to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban in those same tribal areas. That program has ended, both American and Pakistani officials acknowledge, and the last of about 120 American military advisers have left the country.
American officials are now scrambling to find temporary jobs for about 50 Special Forces support personnel who had been helping the trainers with logistics and communications. Their visas were difficult to obtain and officials fear if these troops are sent home, Pakistan will not allow them to return.
In a sign of the growing anger on Capitol Hill, Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who leads the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that he believed elements of the ISI and the military had helped protect Bin Laden.
PESHAWAR BOARD MATRIC RESULT
PESHAWAR BOARD RESULT MATRIC 10TH & 9TH
http://www.bisep.com.pk/results/
http://www.bisep.com.pk/results/
Monday, June 13, 2011
I.M.F. Reports Cyberattack Led to ‘Very Major Breach’
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving significant new powers to its roughly 14,000 agents, allowing them more leeway to search databases, go through household trash or use surveillance teams to scrutinize the lives of people who have attracted their attention.
The F.B.I. soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, according to an official who has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its contents. The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist activity.
The F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing.
“Claiming additional authorities to investigate people only further raises the potential for abuse,” Mr. German said, pointing to complaints about the bureau’s surveillance of domestic political advocacy groups and mosques and to an inspector general’s findings in 2007 that the F.B.I. had frequently misused “national security letters,” which allow agents to obtain information like phone records without a court order.
Valerie E. Caproni, the F.B.I. general counsel, said the bureau had fixed the problems with the national security letters and had taken steps to make sure they would not recur. She also said the bureau, which does not need permission to alter its manual so long as the rules fit within broad guidelines issued by the attorney general, had carefully weighed the risks and the benefits of each change.
“Every one of these has been carefully looked at and considered against the backdrop of why do the employees need to be able to do it, what are the possible risks and what are the controls,” she said, portraying the modifications to the rules as “more like fine-tuning than major changes.”
Some of the most notable changes apply to the lowest category of investigations, called an “assessment.” The category, created in December 2008, allows agents to look into people and organizations “proactively” and without firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity.
Under current rules, agents must open such an inquiry before they can search for information about a person in a commercial or law enforcement database. Under the new rules, agents will be allowed to search such databases without making a record about their decision.
Mr. German said the change would make it harder to detect and deter inappropriate use of databases for personal purposes. But Ms. Caproni said it was too cumbersome to require agents to open formal inquiries before running quick checks. She also said agents could not put information uncovered from such searches into F.B.I. files unless they later opened an assessment.
The new rules will also relax a restriction on administering lie-detector tests and searching people’s trash. Under current rules, agents cannot use such techniques until they open a “preliminary investigation,” which — unlike an assessment — requires a factual basis for suspecting someone of wrongdoing. But soon agents will be allowed to use those techniques for one kind of assessment, too: when they are evaluating a target as a potential informant.
Agents have asked for that power in part because they want the ability to use information found in a subject’s trash to put pressure on that person to assist the government in the investigation of others. But Ms. Caproni said information gathered that way could also be useful for other reasons, like determining whether the subject might pose a threat to agents.
The new manual will also remove a limitation on the use of surveillance squads, which are trained to surreptitiously follow targets. Under current rules, the squads can be used only once during an assessment, but the new rules will allow agents to use them repeatedly. Ms. Caproni said restrictions on the duration of physical surveillance would still apply, and argued that because of limited resources, supervisors would use the squads only rarely during such a low-level investigation.
The revisions also clarify what constitutes “undisclosed participation” in an organization by an F.B.I. agent or informant, which is subject to special rules — most of which have not been made public. The new manual says an agent or an informant may surreptitiously attend up to five meetings of a group before those rules would apply — unless the goal is to join the group, in which case the rules apply immediately.
At least one change would tighten, rather than relax, the rules. Currently, a special agent in charge of a field office can delegate the authority to approve sending an informant to a religious service. The new manual will require such officials to handle those decisions personally.
In addition, the manual clarifies a description of what qualifies as a “sensitive investigative matter” — investigations, at any level, that require greater oversight from supervisors because they involve public officials, members of the news media or academic scholars.
The new rules make clear, for example, that if the person with such a role is a victim or a witness rather than a target of an investigation, extra supervision is not necessary. Also excluded from extra supervision will be investigations of low- and midlevel officials for activities unrelated to their position — like drug cases as opposed to corruption, for example.
The manual clarifies the definition of who qualifies for extra protection as a legitimate member of the news media in the Internet era: prominent bloggers would count, but not people who have low-profile blogs. And it will limit academic protections only to scholars who work for institutions based in the United States.
Since the release of the 2008 manual, the assessment category has drawn scrutiny because it sets a low bar to examine a person or a group. The F.B.I. has opened thousands of such low-level investigations each month, and a vast majority has not generated information that justified opening more intensive investigations.
Ms. Caproni said the new manual would adjust the definition of assessments to make clear that they must be based on leads. But she rejected arguments that the F.B.I. should focus only on investigations that begin with a firm reason for suspecting wrongdoing.
The F.B.I. soon plans to issue a new edition of its manual, called the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, according to an official who has worked on the draft document and several others who have been briefed on its contents. The new rules add to several measures taken over the past decade to give agents more latitude as they search for signs of criminal or terrorist activity.
The F.B.I. recently briefed several privacy advocates about the coming changes. Among them, Michael German, a former F.B.I. agent who is now a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that it was unwise to further ease restrictions on agents’ power to use potentially intrusive techniques, especially if they lacked a firm reason to suspect someone of wrongdoing.
“Claiming additional authorities to investigate people only further raises the potential for abuse,” Mr. German said, pointing to complaints about the bureau’s surveillance of domestic political advocacy groups and mosques and to an inspector general’s findings in 2007 that the F.B.I. had frequently misused “national security letters,” which allow agents to obtain information like phone records without a court order.
Valerie E. Caproni, the F.B.I. general counsel, said the bureau had fixed the problems with the national security letters and had taken steps to make sure they would not recur. She also said the bureau, which does not need permission to alter its manual so long as the rules fit within broad guidelines issued by the attorney general, had carefully weighed the risks and the benefits of each change.
“Every one of these has been carefully looked at and considered against the backdrop of why do the employees need to be able to do it, what are the possible risks and what are the controls,” she said, portraying the modifications to the rules as “more like fine-tuning than major changes.”
Some of the most notable changes apply to the lowest category of investigations, called an “assessment.” The category, created in December 2008, allows agents to look into people and organizations “proactively” and without firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity.
Under current rules, agents must open such an inquiry before they can search for information about a person in a commercial or law enforcement database. Under the new rules, agents will be allowed to search such databases without making a record about their decision.
Mr. German said the change would make it harder to detect and deter inappropriate use of databases for personal purposes. But Ms. Caproni said it was too cumbersome to require agents to open formal inquiries before running quick checks. She also said agents could not put information uncovered from such searches into F.B.I. files unless they later opened an assessment.
The new rules will also relax a restriction on administering lie-detector tests and searching people’s trash. Under current rules, agents cannot use such techniques until they open a “preliminary investigation,” which — unlike an assessment — requires a factual basis for suspecting someone of wrongdoing. But soon agents will be allowed to use those techniques for one kind of assessment, too: when they are evaluating a target as a potential informant.
Agents have asked for that power in part because they want the ability to use information found in a subject’s trash to put pressure on that person to assist the government in the investigation of others. But Ms. Caproni said information gathered that way could also be useful for other reasons, like determining whether the subject might pose a threat to agents.
The new manual will also remove a limitation on the use of surveillance squads, which are trained to surreptitiously follow targets. Under current rules, the squads can be used only once during an assessment, but the new rules will allow agents to use them repeatedly. Ms. Caproni said restrictions on the duration of physical surveillance would still apply, and argued that because of limited resources, supervisors would use the squads only rarely during such a low-level investigation.
The revisions also clarify what constitutes “undisclosed participation” in an organization by an F.B.I. agent or informant, which is subject to special rules — most of which have not been made public. The new manual says an agent or an informant may surreptitiously attend up to five meetings of a group before those rules would apply — unless the goal is to join the group, in which case the rules apply immediately.
At least one change would tighten, rather than relax, the rules. Currently, a special agent in charge of a field office can delegate the authority to approve sending an informant to a religious service. The new manual will require such officials to handle those decisions personally.
In addition, the manual clarifies a description of what qualifies as a “sensitive investigative matter” — investigations, at any level, that require greater oversight from supervisors because they involve public officials, members of the news media or academic scholars.
The new rules make clear, for example, that if the person with such a role is a victim or a witness rather than a target of an investigation, extra supervision is not necessary. Also excluded from extra supervision will be investigations of low- and midlevel officials for activities unrelated to their position — like drug cases as opposed to corruption, for example.
The manual clarifies the definition of who qualifies for extra protection as a legitimate member of the news media in the Internet era: prominent bloggers would count, but not people who have low-profile blogs. And it will limit academic protections only to scholars who work for institutions based in the United States.
Since the release of the 2008 manual, the assessment category has drawn scrutiny because it sets a low bar to examine a person or a group. The F.B.I. has opened thousands of such low-level investigations each month, and a vast majority has not generated information that justified opening more intensive investigations.
Ms. Caproni said the new manual would adjust the definition of assessments to make clear that they must be based on leads. But she rejected arguments that the F.B.I. should focus only on investigations that begin with a firm reason for suspecting wrongdoing.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Absences Speak Loudly at Video Game Expo
LOS ANGELES — The big names were all here last week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry’s annual conclave — Microsoft, with its XBox; Sony, with its PlayStation; and Nintendo, with its Wii. But they all make console games, and these days the game platforms enjoying the most explosive growth are a social network — Facebook — and a mobile device maker — Apple.
Neither was represented here (although Apple rarely appears at industry events), but they were the elephants in the room.
Everyone noticed their absence, even if the big three tried to brush off their importance.
“Imagine the type of amazing game Nintendo could make for an iPhone, yet they can they barely even acknowledge that the iOS platform exists, and has the potential to eviscerate their portables business,” said Joel Johnson, editorial director for Kotaku, a popular online video game blog.
“Nintendo has owned portable gaming for years, but are still wedded to the idea that they have to sell the game and the platform.”
As if underscoring the point, Albert Penello, director for marketing at Microsoft, said in an interview, “This concept of games that are more bite-sized and more casual is something we get, but our primary focus is Xbox 360 and Kinect right now.”
What could be called iElephant loomed particularly large.
Over the past year, Apple’s mobile operating system, which powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, has become one of the largest mobile gaming platforms in the world. Apple’s mobile users can now pick among 100,000 games and entertainment applications to play on their mobile devices, said Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president for iPhone software, speaking at the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco last week.
The company also said it now had 50 million registered users on its social gaming platform, Game Center. Citing these numbers, Mr. Forstall told the conference attendees that iPod Touch had become “the most popular gaming platform on the planet.”
Meanwhile, as Mr. Johnson said, Facebook has also become an important gaming platform. Zynga, which makes online games for Facebook including the hugely popular Farmville, has tens of millions of users who play Facebook’s free games on a daily basis.
“You have this 800-pound, 10-billion-dollar gorilla in the room that is Zynga, and just like Apple, is not even mentioned in the same breath as the other three main competitors,” Mr. Johnson said.
On the conference floor, the demonstration suite of Electronic Arts, publishers of the popular games Angry Birds, FIFA Soccer and The Sims, seemed to have more iPads and iPod Touch devices than are on display in an average Apple store.
“The iPhone was a long time coming in this industry and I think mobile is one of the most important gaming platforms that will ever exist for gaming,” said Travis Boatman, senior vice president for worldwide studios for Electronic Arts.
But Mr. Boatman said that though his company had a strong focus on mobile gaming, it was still aggressively committed to other gaming consoles and was “platform agnostic” when it came to game development. Electronic Arts currently offers more than 50 games in the Apple iTunes Store. Many of its most popular games are available on other consoles too, including the portable Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.
An employee showed off new Electronic Arts games, using an Apple iPad 2 plugged into a large flat-screen television. As he played a first-person-shooter video game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, it seemed as if the iPad was essentially the controller for the game. No expensive gaming console was necessary.
Consoles Still Have Fans
Apple devices are not the only platform for mobile games; the discussion also centered on Google Android, which has become the most popular smartphone platform in the United States, and now has thousands of games in its arsenal too.
But plenty of game makers still have faith in the console. Activision, maker of the popular console game Modern Warfare, wasn’t entirely sold on the benefits of mobile devices for immersive gameplay.
“There are 400,000 apps in the iTunes app store,” said Eric Hirshberg, chief executive of Activision. “I don’t want to be number 400,001.”
And Activision doesn’t need to jump on the same game wagon as other developers, yet. Earlier this year, its latest hit, Call of Duty: Black Ops, attracted $650 million in its first five days on sale.
Yet, one official action of the Electronic Entertainment Expo spoke volumes about the importance of the mobile game platform: For the first time, the group did not bother to put up a mobile gaming booth.
“We decided to forgo a separate mobile pavilion this year because it is clear that mobile gaming is no longer different from other forms of video games,” a spokeswoman for the conference said. “Mobile gaming is everywhere now. It didn’t make sense to separate it at the convention either.”
Sony Security
Another elephant stalked the halls of the conference all week — the question of security in Sony’s PlayStation network.
At a news conference held by Sony that felt more like a rock concert than a press event because it was held on a huge stage in a stadium, Jack Tretton, the chief executive of Sony America, apologized to customers for the data breach that knocked the PlayStation Network offline for almost a month.
In an interview later, Mr. Tretton defended the company’s security methods, even in the face of a barrage of successful attacks on Sony’s servers. “This was a real wake-up call we had to go through,” he said, “but now we feel our systems are more secure that they have ever been.”
But, on the same day of the interview, a group of hackers claimed to have breached the company’s servers again. Security experts estimated that this was the 18th successful attack on Sony in the last two months.
The hacking seems to have affected Sony’s business. Mr. Tretton said in the interview that network activity was “currently at 90 percent what it was before the outage.” This means that 10 percent of its users, almost seven million people, have not returned to the service.
Neither was represented here (although Apple rarely appears at industry events), but they were the elephants in the room.
Everyone noticed their absence, even if the big three tried to brush off their importance.
“Imagine the type of amazing game Nintendo could make for an iPhone, yet they can they barely even acknowledge that the iOS platform exists, and has the potential to eviscerate their portables business,” said Joel Johnson, editorial director for Kotaku, a popular online video game blog.
“Nintendo has owned portable gaming for years, but are still wedded to the idea that they have to sell the game and the platform.”
As if underscoring the point, Albert Penello, director for marketing at Microsoft, said in an interview, “This concept of games that are more bite-sized and more casual is something we get, but our primary focus is Xbox 360 and Kinect right now.”
What could be called iElephant loomed particularly large.
Over the past year, Apple’s mobile operating system, which powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, has become one of the largest mobile gaming platforms in the world. Apple’s mobile users can now pick among 100,000 games and entertainment applications to play on their mobile devices, said Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president for iPhone software, speaking at the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco last week.
The company also said it now had 50 million registered users on its social gaming platform, Game Center. Citing these numbers, Mr. Forstall told the conference attendees that iPod Touch had become “the most popular gaming platform on the planet.”
Meanwhile, as Mr. Johnson said, Facebook has also become an important gaming platform. Zynga, which makes online games for Facebook including the hugely popular Farmville, has tens of millions of users who play Facebook’s free games on a daily basis.
“You have this 800-pound, 10-billion-dollar gorilla in the room that is Zynga, and just like Apple, is not even mentioned in the same breath as the other three main competitors,” Mr. Johnson said.
On the conference floor, the demonstration suite of Electronic Arts, publishers of the popular games Angry Birds, FIFA Soccer and The Sims, seemed to have more iPads and iPod Touch devices than are on display in an average Apple store.
“The iPhone was a long time coming in this industry and I think mobile is one of the most important gaming platforms that will ever exist for gaming,” said Travis Boatman, senior vice president for worldwide studios for Electronic Arts.
But Mr. Boatman said that though his company had a strong focus on mobile gaming, it was still aggressively committed to other gaming consoles and was “platform agnostic” when it came to game development. Electronic Arts currently offers more than 50 games in the Apple iTunes Store. Many of its most popular games are available on other consoles too, including the portable Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.
An employee showed off new Electronic Arts games, using an Apple iPad 2 plugged into a large flat-screen television. As he played a first-person-shooter video game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, it seemed as if the iPad was essentially the controller for the game. No expensive gaming console was necessary.
Consoles Still Have Fans
Apple devices are not the only platform for mobile games; the discussion also centered on Google Android, which has become the most popular smartphone platform in the United States, and now has thousands of games in its arsenal too.
But plenty of game makers still have faith in the console. Activision, maker of the popular console game Modern Warfare, wasn’t entirely sold on the benefits of mobile devices for immersive gameplay.
“There are 400,000 apps in the iTunes app store,” said Eric Hirshberg, chief executive of Activision. “I don’t want to be number 400,001.”
And Activision doesn’t need to jump on the same game wagon as other developers, yet. Earlier this year, its latest hit, Call of Duty: Black Ops, attracted $650 million in its first five days on sale.
Yet, one official action of the Electronic Entertainment Expo spoke volumes about the importance of the mobile game platform: For the first time, the group did not bother to put up a mobile gaming booth.
“We decided to forgo a separate mobile pavilion this year because it is clear that mobile gaming is no longer different from other forms of video games,” a spokeswoman for the conference said. “Mobile gaming is everywhere now. It didn’t make sense to separate it at the convention either.”
Sony Security
Another elephant stalked the halls of the conference all week — the question of security in Sony’s PlayStation network.
At a news conference held by Sony that felt more like a rock concert than a press event because it was held on a huge stage in a stadium, Jack Tretton, the chief executive of Sony America, apologized to customers for the data breach that knocked the PlayStation Network offline for almost a month.
In an interview later, Mr. Tretton defended the company’s security methods, even in the face of a barrage of successful attacks on Sony’s servers. “This was a real wake-up call we had to go through,” he said, “but now we feel our systems are more secure that they have ever been.”
But, on the same day of the interview, a group of hackers claimed to have breached the company’s servers again. Security experts estimated that this was the 18th successful attack on Sony in the last two months.
The hacking seems to have affected Sony’s business. Mr. Tretton said in the interview that network activity was “currently at 90 percent what it was before the outage.” This means that 10 percent of its users, almost seven million people, have not returned to the service.
Twitter’s Secret Handshake
CHARLIE SHEEN’S meltdown took many forms: a cocaine-fueled rampage in a New York hotel room, an erratic radio rant, a vulgar one-man comedy tour. But his biggest contribution to current culture may have been more subtle. With a simple Twitter phrase, #winning, known in the parlance of social media as a hashtag, Mr. Sheen underscored one of the newest ways technology has changed how we communicate.
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Kristofer Cheng for The New York Times
AN IDEA Chris Messina invented the hashtag.
Related
Times Topic: TwitterHashtags, words or phrases preceded by the # symbol, have been popularized on Twitter as a way for users to organize and search messages. So, for instance, people tweeting about Representative Anthony D. Weiner might add the hashtag #Weinergate to their messages, and those curious about the latest developments in the scandal could simply search for #Weinergate. Or Justin Bieber fans might use #Bieber to find fellow Beliebers.
But already, hashtags have transcended the 140-characters-or-less microblogging platform, and have become a new cultural shorthand, finding their way into chat windows, e-mail and face-to-face conversations.
This year on Super Bowl Sunday, Audi broadcast a new commercial featuring a hashtag, #ProgressIs, that flashed on the screen and urged viewers to complete the “Progress Is” prompt on Twitter for the chance to win a prize. Then, in Canada’s English-language federal election debate in April, Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party, set the Canadian Twitterverse aflame when he attacked Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s crime policies, calling them “a hashtag fail.”
And when Chris Messina, a developer advocate at Google, wanted to introduce two friends over e-mail, he wrote #Introduction in the subject line. No need, he explained, for a long preamble when a quick, to-the-point hashtag would do.
Then again, Mr. Messina is no ordinary Twitter user. The self-described “hash godfather,” he officially invented the Twitter hashtag in August 2007, when he sent out a Twitter message suggesting that the pound symbol be used for organizing groups on Twitter. (For example, if attendees at the South by Southwest music and technology conference all add #sxsw to their messages, they can more easily search and sort themselves on Twitter.) Though the idea took awhile to catch on, it quickly snowballed — on Twitter and offline.
“At first, people who weren’t using Twitter were saying: ‘What’s this pound sign? Why am I seeing it?’ ” said Ginger Wilcox, a founder of the Social Media Marketing Institute. “I would say 2010 was really the year of the hashtag.”
Soon, people began using hashtags to add humor, context and interior monologues to their messages — and everyday conversation. As Susan Orlean wrote in a New Yorker blog post titled “Hash,” the symbol can be “a more sophisticated, verbal version of the dread winking emoticon that tweens use to signify that they’re joking.”
“Because you have a hashtag embedded in a short message with real language, it starts exhibiting other characteristics of natural language, which means basically that people start playing with it and manipulating it,” said Jacob Eisenstein, a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in computational linguistics. “You’ll see them used as humor, as sort of meta-commentary, where you’ll write a message and maybe you don’t really believe it, and what you really think is in the hashtag.”
So, for instance, a messages that reads “3 hour delay on Amtrak #StimulusDollarsAtWork,” likely implies that the user does not, in fact, think that their stimulus dollars are hard at work.
Hashtags then began popping up outside of Twitter, in e-mails, chat windows and text messages. When Adam Sharp was hired as Twitter’s Washington liaison, he said he received a number of e-mails wishing him well — and, of course, #congrats.
In a time-crunched world, the hashtag proved itself a useful shorthand. “If Twitter is a compression of ideas and a compression of expression, then hashtags are just an extension of that, so of course it bleeds over into other forms of communication, because our time is compressed, our thoughts are compressed and our space is compressed,” said Tracy Sefl, a Democratic strategist. “In Washington, it’s a very happy extension of an acronym-happy culture.”
Using a hashtag is also a way for someone to convey that they’re part of a certain scene. “You kind of have to be in-the-know,” Mr. Messina said. “So it’s one of those jokes where you’re like, ‘Oh, I see what you did there, because you’re on Twitter and I’m on Twitter.’ ”
To deftly deploy a hashtag, after all, you need to understand the culture, said Susan Herring, a professor of information science and linguistics at Indiana University-Bloomington.
U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors
U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors
The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.
Multimedia
Slide Show Technology for ‘Shadow’ Internet Networks.
Graphic Creating a Stealth Internet.The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”
Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.
The American effort, revealed in dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables obtained by The New York Times, ranges in scale, cost and sophistication.
Some projects involve technology that the United States is developing; others pull together tools that have already been created by hackers in a so-called liberation-technology movement sweeping the globe.
The State Department, for example, is financing the creation of stealth wireless networks that would enable activists to communicate outside the reach of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, according to participants in the projects.
In one of the most ambitious efforts, United States officials say, the State Department and Pentagon have spent at least $50 million to create an independent cellphone network in Afghanistan using towers on protected military bases inside the country. It is intended to offset the Taliban’s ability to shut down the official Afghan services, seemingly at will.
The effort has picked up momentum since the government of President Hosni Mubarak shut down the Egyptian Internet in the last days of his rule. In recent days, the Syrian government also temporarily disabled much of that country’s Internet, which had helped protesters mobilize.
The Obama administration’s initiative is in one sense a new front in a longstanding diplomatic push to defend free speech and nurture democracy. For decades, the United States has sent radio broadcasts into autocratic countries through Voice of America and other means. More recently, Washington has supported the development of software that preserves the anonymity of users in places like China, and training for citizens who want to pass information along the government-owned Internet without getting caught.
But the latest initiative depends on creating entirely separate pathways for communication. It has brought together an improbable alliance of diplomats and military engineers, young programmers and dissidents from at least a dozen countries, many of whom variously describe the new approach as more audacious and clever and, yes, cooler.
Sometimes the State Department is simply taking advantage of enterprising dissidents who have found ways to get around government censorship. American diplomats are meeting with operatives who have been burying Chinese cellphones in the hills near the border with North Korea, where they can be dug up and used to make furtive calls, according to interviews and the diplomatic cables.
The new initiatives have found a champion in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose department is spearheading the American effort. “We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations,” Mrs. Clinton said in an e-mail response to a query on the topic. “There is a historic opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports,” she said. “So we’re focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world.”
Multimedia
Slide Show Technology for ‘Shadow’ Internet Networks.
Graphic Creating a Stealth Internet.The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”
Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.
The American effort, revealed in dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables obtained by The New York Times, ranges in scale, cost and sophistication.
Some projects involve technology that the United States is developing; others pull together tools that have already been created by hackers in a so-called liberation-technology movement sweeping the globe.
The State Department, for example, is financing the creation of stealth wireless networks that would enable activists to communicate outside the reach of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, according to participants in the projects.
In one of the most ambitious efforts, United States officials say, the State Department and Pentagon have spent at least $50 million to create an independent cellphone network in Afghanistan using towers on protected military bases inside the country. It is intended to offset the Taliban’s ability to shut down the official Afghan services, seemingly at will.
The effort has picked up momentum since the government of President Hosni Mubarak shut down the Egyptian Internet in the last days of his rule. In recent days, the Syrian government also temporarily disabled much of that country’s Internet, which had helped protesters mobilize.
The Obama administration’s initiative is in one sense a new front in a longstanding diplomatic push to defend free speech and nurture democracy. For decades, the United States has sent radio broadcasts into autocratic countries through Voice of America and other means. More recently, Washington has supported the development of software that preserves the anonymity of users in places like China, and training for citizens who want to pass information along the government-owned Internet without getting caught.
But the latest initiative depends on creating entirely separate pathways for communication. It has brought together an improbable alliance of diplomats and military engineers, young programmers and dissidents from at least a dozen countries, many of whom variously describe the new approach as more audacious and clever and, yes, cooler.
Sometimes the State Department is simply taking advantage of enterprising dissidents who have found ways to get around government censorship. American diplomats are meeting with operatives who have been burying Chinese cellphones in the hills near the border with North Korea, where they can be dug up and used to make furtive calls, according to interviews and the diplomatic cables.
The new initiatives have found a champion in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose department is spearheading the American effort. “We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations,” Mrs. Clinton said in an e-mail response to a query on the topic. “There is a historic opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports,” she said. “So we’re focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world.”
Saturday, May 14, 2011
osama bin laden wife statement of live operation in abbottabad
The family of Osama Bin Laden's youngest wife were too afraid to speak of her after she married the terror chief, it has been revealed.
Amal Al Sadah, the Al Qaeda leader's fifth wife, was a 'quite, polite, easy-going and confident teenager' before she was married off to the world's most wanted terrorist.
A relative named Ahmed has told CNN that the young bride was from a big, conservative family - but that she was in no way extremist before the wedding.
After the arranged marriage - made to shore up Bin Laden's political ties to Yemen - however, Amal's family abandoned her to her fate, too afraid to discuss her in public.
'Her direct family knew the dangers of talking about such topics,' Ahmed told CNN. 'Even if anyone asked about her, they would avoid talking about the issue.'
'She was a very good overall person,' he said. Her family 'was like most Yemeni families. They were conservative but lived a modern life compared to other families.'
The family were established and respectable - but certainly not militant, he said. 'The family had no extremist views, even though they came from a conservative background.'
He claimed the Yemeni government has harassed the family into keeping silent on their terrorist in-law.
The government apparently did not realise that Amal was married to Bin Laden when she was issued with a passport, Ahmed claimed.
Amal was shot in the calf when she charged at the Navy SEALs who stormed the room she had been living in with her husband for the last five years.
As Pakistani authorities took hold of the woman and her young daughter Safiyah, they hoped that questioning her could provide intricate details into the life of America's most hated enemy.
Glimpse: Bin Laden's fifth wife somehow managed to return to her husband in Pakistan after being sent back to Yemen and questions are now being raised over whether the CIA were watching her closely enough
The 29-year-old and her daughter are recovering in a military hospital in Rawalpindi and intelligence are trying to gage as much information from her as possible after she reportedly told them that she and her husband lived in the same room in the compound for the last five years.
They are also holding two of Bin Laden's other wives and gleaning 'valuable information' from them.
According to Time magazine, in 2002 Amal gave an interview to a Saudi woman's magazine, al-Majalla, in which she explained that after the 9/11 attacks, she made her way to Yemen from Pakistan with the help of Pakistani officials.
She also gave a glimpse into the life of a terror chief's wife.
She said: 'When the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan started, we moved to a mountainous area with some children and lived in one of the caves for two months until one of his sons came with a group of tribesmen and took us with them.
Husband: Amal married Osama Bin Laden when she was just a teenager after he showered with gifts of up to $5,000
'I did not know that we were going to Pakistan until they handed us over to the Pakistani government.'
Time said that parts of this account were confirmed to them by an Arab woman - who did not want to be identified - who knew Bin Laden personally in Afganistan. Members of her family were also a part of Al Qaeda's inner circle.
When Amal was handed over at the age of 19, she and her daughter were allowed to fly home to a town close to the Yemen capital of Sanaa.
It is not clear how she was able to rejoin her husband and it has raised questions about whether or not the CIA were watching her closely enough with claims that it could have led them to Bin Laden sooner.
Although she leaped to her husband's defence during the attack, an acquaintance of hers interviewed by Time remembers her as 'shy and meek' when she was first brought to Kandahar in 2000, where she stayed with Bin Laden's other wives.
The friend said of Amal - Bin Laden's fifth wife: 'She was new. She was out of place. The Sheikh's other wives were much older than she was. So were many of his sons.'
The Al Qaeda leader's first wife Saada was said to be furious that she married the son of a billionaire who preferred to live in a hut in Afghanistan rather than a palace at home.
Being aware of her disillusionment, Bin Laden sent a trusted Yemeni aide Abual Fida to look for a new bride for him, one which he wanted to be 'religious, generous, well-brought up, quiet, calm and young enough not to feel jealous of his other wives'.
According to Time, Amal's family considered it an honour that their teenage daughter were to marry the Taliban chief - who was already on the U.S. most-wanted list.
Home: She lived with her husband and their children in a room in this compound for the last five years undetected
He reportedly paid $5,000 in jewellery and clothes for her before she was brought to Afghanistan to marry him.
Now that Amal is in the custody of Pakistan's intelligence service - as well as two other Bin Laden wives - it is unlikely that she will be released to U.S. officials or even allowed to be questioned by them.
Asad Munir, a former commander in the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, told ABC News that the wives are facing non-violent interviews: 'We give them a questionnaire, with 20 questions. We change the order of questions every three or four days. For telling lies you have to have very good memory.
'There's a way to find out. No one will tell you the first day the correct answer.'
A senior intelligence official told The Times that 17 people, including four women, were being held, and they have gleaned 'valuable information' from them.
The wives' accounts will help show how Bin Laden spent his time and how he managed to avoid capture, living in a large house close to a military academy in a garrison town, a two-and-a-half hours' drive from the capital Islamabad.
Given changing and incomplete accounts from U.S. officials about what happened during the raid, the women's evidence may also be helpful in unveiling details about the operation.
HAARP is a Space-Based Weapon of Mass Destruction
HAARP is a Space-Based Weapon of Mass Destruction and must be banned by Treaty!
VANCOUVER, B.C. - HAARP is an exotic weapons system that is part of the weaponization of space, using "scalar wave interferometry" - a technology first discovered by scientist Nicola Tesla in the early 1900's. Two or more longitudinal, ultra-low frequency waves are “aimed” at an intersecting point, at which time they interact in a very unique way, “tapping” into the limitless plenum of energy surrounding the planet, and weaponizing this scalar energy.
HAARP Weather & Tectonic Warfare attacks by the evidence most probably caused the Myanmar Cyclone (May 3, 2008) and the China Earthquake (May 12, 2008).
GOOGLEVIDEO: "Journalist & Best-selling author Benjamin Fulford reports from Tokyo on a mysterious plasma weapon seen prior to the Niigata earthquake in July, 2007 and red, white and blue lights seen prior to the recent earthquake in China. Both quakes targeted nuclear facilities...coincidence?"
HAARP has 3 major weapons-system components:
- Space-Based: HAARP weaponizes the Earth's Ionosphere.
- Air-Based: HAARP uses ChemTrails as a frequency reflector from its Ground and Space Base, and as a Binary weapons sysyem against the human population.
- Ground-Based: HAARP ground stations energize HAARP (Alaska; Greenland; Norway; Australia)
HAARP: Reported weapons functions:
- SDI (Strategic Defence Initiative) Radiofrequency weapon
- Environmental warfare - Weather & earthquake warfare
- Space Warfare System
- Missile Defense System
- Scalar energy warfare against land and population targets, including cities, industrial sites, buildings, populations and individuals
- ELF weapon with electromagnetic harassment and mood manipulation of target populations and individuals.
- Biological & Binary Weapons against populations (with Chemtrails component)
HAARP is a Space-Based Weapon of Mass Destruction. The death toll of two recent probable Environmental Warfare attacks by HAARP is on the scale of Hiroshima. The estimated death toll of the May 3, 2008 Weather Warfare Myanmar Cyclone is 78,000 dead + 56,000 missing as of May 29, 2008. (Ben Fulford estimates 100,000 - 500,000 dead). The death toll of the May 12, 2008 Tectonic Warfare China Earthquake is 68,000 as of May 29, 2008, and expected to rise to 80,000. Official Japanese figures at the time put the Hiroshima death toll at 118661 civilians. But later estimates suggest the final toll was about 140000.
To learn more about the Space Preservation Treaty banning all space-based weapons, visit
NTERPELLATION OF THE EUROPEEN PARLEMENT ABOUT HAARP 1995-1999
HAARP - a weapons system which disrupts the climate
On 5 February 1998 Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Disarmament held a hearing the subject of which included HAARP. NATO and the US had been invited to send representatives, but chose not to do so. The Committee regrets the failure of the USA to send a representative to answer questions, or to use the opportunity to comment on the material submitted.(21)
HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project) is run jointly by the US Air Force and Navy, in conjunction with the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Similar experiments are also being conducted in Norway, probably in the Antarctic, as well as in the former Soviet Union.(22) HAARP is a research project using a ground based apparatus, an array of antennae each powered by its own transmitter, to heat up portions of ionosphere with powerful radio beams.(23) The energy generated heats up parts of the ionosphere; this results in holes in the ionosphere and produces artificial 'lenses'.
HAARP can be used for many purposes. Enormous quantities of energy can be controlled by manipulating the electrical characteristics of the atmosphere. If used as a military weapon this can have a devastating impact on an enemy. HAARP can deliver millions of times more energy to a given area than any other conventional transmitter. The energy can also be aimed at a moving target which should constitute a potential anti-missile system.
The project would also allow better communications with submarines and manipulation of global weather patterns, but it is also possible to do the reverse, to disrupt communications. By manipulating the ionosphere one could block global communications while transmitting one's own. Another application is earth-penetrating, tomography, x-raying the earth several kilometres deep, to detect oil and gas fields, or underground military facilities. Over-the-horizon radar is another application, looking round the curvature of the earth for in-coming objects.
From the 1950s the USA conducted explosions of nuclear material in the Van Allen Belts(24) to investigate the effect of the electro-magnetic pulse generated by nuclear weapon explosions at these heights on radio communications and the operation of radar. This created new magnetic radiation belts which covered nearly the whole earth. The electrons travelled along magnetic lines of force and created an artificial Aurora Borealis above the North Pole. These military tests are liable to disrupt the Van Allen belt for a long period. The earth's magnetic field could be disrupted over large areas, which would obstruct radio communications. According to US scientists it could take hundreds of years for the Van Allen belt to return to normal. HAARP could result in changes in weather patterns. It could also influence whole ecosystems, especially in the sensitive Antarctic regions.
Another damaging consequence of HAARP is the occurrence of holes in the ionosphere caused by the powerful radio beams. The ionosphere protects us from incoming cosmic radiation. The hope is that the holes will fill again, but our experience of change in the ozone layer points in the other direction. This means substantial holes in the ionosphere that protects us.
With its far-reaching impact on the environment HAARP is a matter of global concern and we have to ask whether its advantages really outweigh the risks. The environmental impact and the ethical aspect must be closely examined before any further research and testing takes place. HAARP is a project of which the public is almost completely unaware, and this needs to be remedied.
HAARP has links with 50 years of intensive space research for military purposes, including the Star Wars project, to control the upper atmosphere and communications. This kind of research has to be regarded as a serious threat to the environment, with an incalculable impact on human life. Even now nobody knows what impact HAARP may have. We have to beat down the wall of secrecy around military research, and set up the right to openness and democratic scrutiny of military research projects, and parliamentary control.
A series of international treaties and conventions (the Convention on the prohibition of military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques, the Antarctic Treaty, the Treaty on principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use of outer space including the moon and other celestial bodies, and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) casts considerable doubt on HAARP on legal as well as humanitarian and political grounds. The Antarctic Treaty lays down that the Antarctic may be used exclusively for peaceful purposes.(25) This would mean that HAARP is a breach of international law. All the implications of the new weapons systems should be examined by independent international bodies. Further international agreements should be sought to protect the environment from unnecessary destruction in war.
HAARP FACT SHEET
"HAARP", an acronym for "High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program", is a project having the goal of studying fundamental physical principles which govern the region of the earth's atmosphere known as the ionosphere. It is through this region that earth-based communications and radar transmissions must travel to reach satellites or to probe solar and planetary bodies; and conversely, for radio signals from outside the immediate environment of the earth to reach its surface. It also is from these ionized layers that radio waves reflect to achieve over-the-horizon communication and radar systems. The proposed research will be undertaken using high power radio transmitters to probe the overhead ionosphere, combined with a complement of modern scientific diagnostic instruments to investigate the results of the interactions.
HAARP would be constructed at auroral latitudes in Alaska. A unique feature of the research facility would be a high power high- frequency radio transmitter with the capability of rapidly steering a narrow beam of energy toward a designated region of the sky. Similar, though less capable, research facilities exist today at many locations throughout the world and are operated routinely for the purpose of scientific investigation of the ionosphere. In the US such systems are located at Arecibo, Puerto Rico and Fairbanks, Alaska. Other installations are at Tromso, Norway; Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Apatity, Russia; Kharkov, Ukraine and Dushanbe, Tadzhikistan. None of these existing systems, however, have the combination of frequency capability and beam steering agility required to perform the experiments planned for HAARP.
A congressionally initiated effort, HAARP is being managed cooperatively by the Air Force and Navy. The Air Force is responsible for oversight of the environmental process, site acquisition, and implementation of scientific instruments associated with the facility. The Navy is responsible for procurement of the primary contract to design and construct the high power, high-frequency radio transmitter. Users of the HAARP research facility would include civilian entities such as universities and the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as military agencies such as the Air Force, Navy, and Advanced Research Programs Agency (ARPA).
Value of Ionospheric Research
The layer of earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere begins approximately 35 miles above the surface and extends out beyond 500 miles. In contrast to the atmosphere close to the earth which is composed of neutral atoms and molecules, the ionosphere contains both positively and negatively charged particles known as ions and electrons. These ions and electrons are created naturally as a result of the action of the sun's radiation.
This ionized gas of the ionosphere behaves much differently from the neutral atmosphere closer to the earth. A major difference is that radio signals passing through the ionosphere may be distorted, totally reflected or absorbed. For example, communication links from the ground to earth-orbiting satellites can experience fading due to ionospheric distortion; an AM radio signal sometimes can reflect, or "skip , from the ionosphere and be heard at locations hundreds of miles distant from the broadcasting radio station; the characteristic fading on the high-frequency (HF) or "shortwave" band is due to ionospheric interference. Because of its strong interaction with radiowaves, the ionosphere can interfere with communications and radar surveillance systems, which depend on sending radiowaves from one location to another.
Investigations to be conducted at the HAARP facility are expected to provide significant scientific advancements in understanding the ionosphere. The research facility would be used to understand, stimulate and control ionospheric processes that might alter the performance of communication and surveillance systems. This research would enhance present civilian capabilities because it would facilitate the development of techniques to mitigate or control ionospheric processes. Ionospheric disturbances at high latitudes also can act to induce large currents in electric power grids: these are thought to cause power outages. Understanding of these and other phenomena is important to maintain reliable communication and power services. Other civilian applications from the program's research could lead to improved local and world-wide communication such as satellite communication. Furthermore, and possibly more significant, is the potential for new technology that could be developed from a better understanding of ionospheric processes.
DoD Involvement
Potential applications of the HAARP research include developing DoD technology for detecting cruise missiles and aircraft and for communicating with submarines. Although HAARP is being managed by the Air Force and Navy, it is purely a scientific research facility which represents no threat to potential adversaries and would therefore have no value as a military target.
HAARP Transmissions
HAARP would transmit HF radiowaves in a narrow beam, pointed upward to interact with the ionosphere. The beam would be several degrees wide, depending on frequency, and thus would influence a region several miles in diameter in the lower ionosphere, expanding to several tens of miles in the upper ionosphere. The transmissions would be accomplished through the design and construction of a world-class ionospheric research instrument (IRI).
Ionospheric changes produced experimentally by the IRI would be similar to phenomena which occur under natural conditions. However, nature operates on a much larger scale, and for a much longer duration, than would the IRI. The effect of the IRI would be temporary only; the ionosphere would return to its original state within a matter of seconds and there would be no lasting changes.
Because most of the energy of the high power radio beam would be emitted upward rather than toward the horizon, potentially hazardous values of radio field strength would not be present at ground level except possibly very close to the IRI. To prevent human and large mammal exposure to these near-in fields, an exclusion fence would be constructed.
The upward-directed IRI main beam could be sufficiently strong potentially to interfere with electronic equipment in aircraft flying nearby. To preclude this possibility, an aircraft detection radar would be interfaced with the operations center of the IRI, to automatically turn-off the high power transmissions should aircraft be detected flying on a route to pass through the radiowave beam.
The IRI would be constrained to operate within the 2.8 - 10 megahertz (MHz) band on a clear-channel, non-interference basis. Theoretical calculations indicate that interference with television, AM and FM radio, ham radios, cellular phones and/or satellite dishes possibly may be anticipated, in addition to the possibility of interference with HAARP's own radio equipment. The Air Force and Navy are committed to a mitigation program that includes acquisition of equipment to minimize out-of-band transmissions; properly orienting the IRI array to reduce signals emitted toward local population centers; adoption of operating procedures, including beam steering, to reduce the percentage of time large signal levels would be transmitted toward large cities; employing special techniques such as null placement; and working with complainants to reach a mutually satisfactory solution. A smaller, less powerful, IRI will be constructed as a demonstration prototype to ensure mitigation techniques will alleviate possible interference.
HAARP Facilities
The major components of the main HAARP research facility would include the IRI, the combined Operations Center & Diesel Power Building, and a number of scientific instruments used for data- gathering, termed "diagnostics", placed at various locations on the HAARP site. The IRI would consist of an antenna array and associated transmitters, operated from a control room within the Operations Center. The diagnostics would be used to observe the natural parameters of the ionosphere as well as the experimental results with the lRI operating.
The antenna would occupy a rectangular area roughly 1000 ft x 1200 ft and would consist of a 12 x 15 array of antenna masts, each supporting two horizontal crossed dipole antennas, stacked one above the other. The masts would reach a maximum height of 72 ft and would be constrained by guy wires. It is anticipated that the masts would sit on individual piles; gravel fill between the rows and columns of masts would permit access by maintenance vehicles.
While some of the diagnostic instruments would be collocated with the IRI at the research facility, others, due to data collection requirements, must be located off-site at some distance from the IRI. One of the primary on-site diagnostics would be an incoherent scatter radar (ISR) which would transmit radiowave signals in the 430 - 450 MHz band. The ISR would be a 120 ft diameter radar dish supported by a 25 ft diameter pedestal.
The combined power demands of the IRI and ISR would be roughly 12 megawatts (MW). The method of power supply has not been finalized; however, the use of diesel generators is under consideration.
Design and Construction
As the result of a competitive procurement the Air Force and Navy have awarded a contract to ARCO Power Technologies, Inc. (APTI) for the design and construction of the IRI and associated support facilities. The IRI design was selected while considering both cost and environmental impacts. The current schedule anticipates construction at the Gakona site would begin November 1993 and conclude the fall of 1994 with the demonstration prototype. Construction for the full-size IRI is anticipated to begin early 1995 and conclude late 1997.
Site Location
As part of the environmental decision making process, Gakona and Clear AFS were considered as alternative sites for the HAARP facility. On 18 October 1993, a Record of Decision (ROD) was signed by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, selecting Gakona, Alaska as the site for the HAARP Ionospheric Research Facility. The ROD signing follows the Air Force preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement evaluating the potential environmental effects of the HAARP facility.
Use of Local Resources
The prime contractor, APTI, has indicated that they anticipate use of Alaska-based companies in constructing the facility. Green Alaska, ARCO Alaska, Inc. and AHTNA, Inc., are among the companies bang considered.
Postconstruction Operations of the HAARP Research Facility
Since HAARP is to be devoted to ionospheric research, which typically is conducted during a series of research campaigns, it would be used periodically rather than continuously. Campaigns would be scheduled four or five times a year, and typically would involve 10-15 visiting scientists conducting experiments at the site over a two-week period. During research campaigns the scientists will depend on the local economy for food, lodging and other necessities. Maintenance and security functions would be performed by local personnel, who would reside off-site. The HAARP research site is being planned for a life of approximately 20 years.
Environmental Process
In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) the Air Force has prepared an environmental impact statement (EIS), with the Navy as a cooperating agency, to evaluate the consequences of constructing and operating the HAARP research facility in Alaska. State and federal environmental regulatory agencies were consulted to identify issues which are addressed in the EIS. Additional input was solicited from the public during scoping meetings held in Alaska in August 1992. Topics addressed in the EIS include, but are not limited to, electromagnetic and radio frequency interference, vegetation, wetlands, wildlife, air quality, subsistence, cultural resources and the ionosphere.
The Air Force prepared and distributed to the public and to specific organizations a draft EIS on 12 March 1993. During the subsequent 45-day public review period the Air Force held public hearings, at both Glennallen and Anderson, Alaska to solicit input on the draft EIS. All reasonable questions and comments received by 25 April 1993, the end of the public review period, were addressed in writing in the final EIS, which was released to the public on 15 July 1993. The Air Force signed a Record of Decision on 18 October 1993 selecting Gakona, Alaska as the site for the HAARP Ionospheric Research Facility.
In addition to the NEPA process described above, the Air Force and Navy would comply with all applicable state and federal regulations for construction and operation of the HAARP facility.
Additional Information
An updated version of this fact sheet will be issued as often as program changes warrant to keep interested parties apprised of significant developments in regard to HAARP. Any individual seeking additional information about HAARP, or wishing to provide comments regarding HAARP, can contact any one of the individuals listed below.
Mr. John Heckscher
Pl/gpia
Phillips Laboratory
29 Randolph Road
Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-3010
Mr. Ralph Scott
3rd Wing Public Affairs Division
Elmendorf AFB, AK 99506
Mr. Guy McConnell
Alaska District Corps of Engineers, Planning
Npaen-pl-er
Anchorage, Alaska 99506-0898
Is Haarp A Starwars Weapon?
Defending against enemy missile attacks and other imagined threats has generated futuristic and science fiction sounding proposals better known as Starwars. Concepts and ideas circulated wildly throughout government, military and civilian circles. As the former Soviet Union broke up, the backing for U.S. Starwars efforts evaporated and the spending on such projects was dropped. But not soon enough. Many experimental starwars research projects are still funded and being pursued by the military.
HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program), being constructed for the Air Force and Navy by an ARCO subsidiary, is such a project. Touted as scientific research, HAARP is a thinly disguised project to "perturb" the ionosphere with extremely powerful beams of energy to see what military uses it can serve. According to the HAARP RFP, these energy beams will be used to "control ionospheric processes in such a way as to greatly enhance the performance of C3 systems (or, to deny accessibility to an adversary)." That sounds like a weapon to this writer. Other such projects go by the code names BIME, RED AIR, CRRES, EXCEDE, CHARGE IV, WISP, ACTIVE, HIPAS, RADC, AIM, etc..
Nuclear bombs exploded in high altitude tests in the late fifties and early sixties by both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. caused weather and jet stream changes that lasted almost 20 years. Do the HAARP heaters offer the same potential as they "perturb" the ionosphere? The ionosphere is home to many beneficial natural phenomena among them filtering the sun's harmful rays and reflecting radio waves used for communications. Although not totally understood, the ionosphere also directly effects the weather systems and the jet streams.
HAARP, "the most powerful facility (of its kind) in the world" is currently under construction near Gakona, Alaska. Other smaller ionospheric heaters of this type are already in operation in Norway, Ukraine, Russia, Tadzhikistan, Puerto Rico and Fairbanks (yes, right here in Alaska). Could tests and experiments with these ionospheric heaters already be changing global weather systems? Could they be a contributing cause for the floods in the U.S.? Could this be the kind of secret weapon that Zhirinovsky speaks of? Can these heaters change the earth's magnetic fields as well and cause equal reactions half-way around the globe? Will we need to protect ourselves from the sun's rays due to new holes in the ionosphere? What will happen to the individuals living near HAARP when it operates, will they be exposed to unnecessary risk of electromagnetic radiation?
Some of the specific language in the HAARP documents is quoted below and on the next page:
"The HAARP is to ultimately have a HF {High Frequency} heater with an ERP {Effective Radiated Power} well above 1 gigawatt {1,000,000,000 watts} (on the order of 95-100 dBW); in short, the most powerful faci!ity in the world for conducting ionospheric modification research."
"The Soviets, operating at higher powers than the West, now have claimed significant stimulated ionization by electron-impact ionization. The claim is that HF energy, via wave-particle interaction, accelerates ionospheric electrons to energies well in excess of 20 electron volts (eV) so that they will ionize neutral atmospheric particles with which they collide. Given that the Soviet HF facilities are several times more powerful than the Western facilities at comparable midlatitudes, and given that the latter appear to be on a threshold of a new "waveparticle" regime of phenomena, it is believed that the Soviets have crossed that threshold and are exploring a regime of phenomena still unavailable for study or application in the West."
"A key goal of the program {HAARP} is the identification and investigation of those ionospheric processes and phenomena that can be exploited for DoD purposes, such as outlined below.
Geophysical probing to identify and characterize natural ionospheric processes ... so that techniques can be developed to mitigate or control them.
Generation of ionospheric lenses to focus large amounts of HF energy ... thus providing a means for triggering ionospheric processes that potentially could be exploited for DoD purposes.
Electron acceleration for the generation of IR (infrared) and other optical emissions ... that could be used to control radio wave propagation properties.
Generation of geomagnetic-field aligned ionization to control the reflection/scattering properties of radio waves.
Oblique heating to produce effects on radio wave propagation at great distances from the heater, thus broadening the potential military applications of ionospheric enhancement technology.
Generation of ionization layers below 90 km to provide radio wave reflectors ("mirrors") which can be exploited for long range, over-the-horizon, HF/VHF/UHF surveillance purposes ....
Why are the citizens of the United States being asked to pay for such a project? Why do those associated closely with the project reference its use as submarine communications and other apparently innocuous purposes?
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